It’s a little unusual for a small place like Roche Harbor to host a salmon derby, so eyebrows raised even higher when the resort community on San Juan Island announced it would add a second derby.
The reasons for doubling down this winter, according to organizer Debbie Sandwith at the Roche Harbor Market were, first, the long-running Roche Harbor Salmon Classic, held in February, had become popular enough among Northwest salmon fishing cognoscenti that it was an annual sellout and, second, the state opened an early winter blackmouth season in the islands for the first time in 12 years.
Thus the decision to do another tourney, even though the largest town on the island, Friday Harbor, is home to just 1,500 souls, or so.
And guess what? The second derby, held last weekend, also sold out. That one was called the First Annual 2009 Roche Harbor Hook ‘em and Hold ‘em Salmon Derby and Texas Hold ‘em Tournament.
“We added the poker to sort of spice it up a little,” Sandwith said, “and we actually had a fair number of guys who bought tickets never intending to fish at all.”
There were 150 tickets sold and a total of 17 chinook weighed in, Sandwith said — 13 Friday and four Saturday. The first prize of $5,000 cash went to Dennis Brooks of Mount Vernon for a blackmouth of 16.3 pounds; second and $3,000 to Dale Nelsen of Bellingham, at 13.8 pounds, and third, worth $2,000, to the ever-present Jim Aggergaard of Anacortes, at 13.2 pounds.
The best poker player, apparently, was Scott James of Arlington, who held ‘em for $2,400.
Now, with word that the seventh annual Classic, due up in February, is already a sellout, Roche Harbor has two winners in its repertoire. Not only that, but the 2010 Classic will be the first event in the Northwest Marine Trade Association’s Salmon Derby Series, the year-long collection of tournaments leading to a drawing for a couple of high-profile boat/motor/trailer packages at the end of the season. And — now hear this — Sandwith said the 2010 Roche Harbor blackmouth and poker derby will become the last event in the series, assuming the state again opens an early blackmouth fishery in the islands.
That’s important to Everett-area fishermen, since either the Everett Coho Derby, or the Edmonds Coho Derby has been the final series event for the past several years. The series’ final derby always acquires a certain cachet, since the boat-package drawings require the winner to be present, and thus are often (but not always) won by participants in the final event. It’s a lot easier for a local series ticket-holder to be present in Everett or Edmonds, than in Roche Harbor, you see.
So what are the folks on San Juan Island going to do for tournament No. 3?
Maybe the First Annual 2010 Roche Harbor Lingcod Tournament and Chocolate Chip Cookie Bake Off?
If you would like to get your name on the waiting list for the February Classic, call Sandwith at 360-378-5562.
LOCAL BLACKMOUTH
It may be the result of very cold temperatures keeping most local salmon anglers off the water, but one suspects the poor winter blackmouth checks at area ramps are due in large measure to the closure on Dec. 1 of Marine Area 9 and Possession Bar. Checks at the Port of Everett ramp Saturday showed 31 anglers in 15 boats with one fish. The odds were a little better farther north: nine anglers with two fish at the Camano Island State Park ramp Sunday, and three anglers with one fish at the Washington Park ramp, also on Sunday.
BEACH STEELHEAD
A reader e-mailed to say the winter steelhead beach fishery on the west side of Whidbey Island can now go forward. It was inaugurated officially, the reader said, by longtime beach fisherman Dave Edgikowski, who reportedly landed the first Lagoon Point hatchery steelhead of the season, a 5-pounder, on Saturday. Edgikowski has been “surf casting” for Whidbey steelhead for 30 years, and he needed just an hour and a half Saturday to beach 2009’s first.
Which brings up the point that winter steelhead this year in much of Western Washington seem to be either late or low in numbers. The Cowlitz — usually one of the earliest, and best, winter steelhead streams — is just now picking up for anglers at Blue Creek. Tacoma Power reports that through Dec. 2, a total of 266 winter steelhead had returned to the salmon hatchery, compared to 743 last year at this point.
It’s roughly the same story on the Kalama — 41 fish this year to the Kalama Falls Hatchery, compared to 61 at the same time last year — and even worse on the Lewis, where 18 fish had returned to the traps compared to 408 last year.
FISHING REGULATION COMMENTS
Lead fishing weights and the possible closure of a popular Strait of Juan de Fuca bottomfish area brought the most public heat to the Dec. 4-5 meeting of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission in Olympia. The meeting was held to take public comment on a wide range of proposed sportfishing rule changes for the 2010-12 biennium.
Dozens of people commented on several of the proposals, but the commission decided that the two above garnered enough input to warrant more public involvement.
Certain lead fishing weights and jigs would, in one proposal, be banned in 13 state lakes in an attempt to cut down on accidental poisoning of common loons. The other proposed change would close to bottomfishing, including halibut, an area 1.5 miles offshore, east past Cape Flattery, and on east to Neah Bay, as a bottomfish reserve.
BLACKMANS PLANT
The Snohomish Sportsmen’s Club planted 1,500 triploid rainbow trout in Blackmans Lake just before Thanksgiving, according to club president Mark Spada. The fish run a pound and a half to about 3 pounds. The club plans another plant prior to Christmas.
Spada also said the club has been lobbying for a reduction in the per-person daily trout limit on the lake from five fish to three, in an attempt to spread the fishing out over more people and a longer period of time.
State biologist Chad Jackson at the agency’s Mill Creek office said the regulation change has been included in the rule proposal package currently before the state Fish and Wildlife Commission, but has not been approved.
If it is approved, and all concerned seemed to think it would be, the three-fish limit would become effective in May of 2010.
POOR SMELT OUTLOOK
State fish managers are projecting only a slight improvement over 2009 in next year’s Columbia River smelt run, probably meaning poor Cowlitz dipping and the same restricted schedule as has been in place the past couple of seasons.
Additionally, biologists said chances are good the fish will be listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act by next spring, as proposed two years ago by the Cowlitz Tribe.
DECLINING STURGEON
The recreational sturgeon fishery in the Columbia River estuary, including charters out of Ilwaco and Pacific, plus private boats and bank anglers, kept about 13,000 legal fish in 2009, for 51,400 angler trips. That was the lowest catch since 1991 and probably will result in the quota for 2010 being cut by about a third.
Sturgeon populations in the lower Columbia are showing troubling trends, according to biologists, including a huge shift of numbers into the Willamette. That may be due to warmer water temperatures in the Oregon river, or poor smelt returns the past several years to the Columbia, or both. Additionally, threats such as those posed by Steller and California sea lions on the sturgeon spawning beds below Bonneville Dam, have increased.
BIG BASS
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency turned up a largemouth bass of 16 pounds, 15 ounces during routine electro-fishing studies in October, in 167-acre Brown’s Creek Lake. The lunker was released, but word got out and you can imagine the fishing activity the story spawned. Biologists say the big female could weigh well over 18 pounds as she fattens up during January and February.
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